1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a terminal locking structure to retain a terminal inside a terminal accommodation chamber of a connector housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
When installing a terminal of a connector into a connector housing, the terminal is inserted into the terminal accommodation chamber of the connector housing, and is locked by a locking lance provided inside the terminal accommodation chamber. With this locking, the terminal is prevented from coming off from the terminal accommodation chamber. In the connector housing having such a terminal locking structure, a pair of locking lances is provided at both sidewalls of the terminal accommodation chamber in order to decrease the height thereof (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-367706). Each of the locking lances is formed in a bendable manner in a direction (the transverse direction) intersecting the terminal insertion direction.
FIGS. 1 and 2 show a connector 100 which has a terminal locking structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-367706. A pair of locking lances 115 and 115 is provided inside a terminal accommodation chamber 111. Each locking lance 115 is bendable in the transverse direction (the up-down direction of FIG. 1). The connector 100 includes: a connector housing 110 to accommodate a terminal (a female terminal) 200, and a retainer 130 attached to the front end portion of the connector housing 110.
The connector housing 110 includes a plurality of terminal accommodation chambers 111. As shown in FIG. 1, the left and right side walls 113 of each of the terminal accommodation chambers 111 are provided with the locking lances 115 and 115, which make a pair. Each of the paired locking lances 115 and 115 includes a locking protrusion 117 which locks the terminal 200. The locking protrusion 117 is provided at a front end serving as a free end of the locking lance 115, and a base end side of the locking lance 115 is integrated with the sidewall 113 to be fixed to the sidewall 113. That is, each of the locking lances 115 is formed as a cantilever which is fixed to the sidewall 113 at one end thereof. When the terminal 200 is inserted into the terminal accommodation chamber 111, each of the locking lances 115 is bent so as to be distant from the terminal 200 and is returned so as to be locked to the rear side of a corresponding terminal contact portion 210 at the front end portion of the terminal 200. With this locking, the terminal 200 is prevented from coming off from the terminal accommodation chamber 111.
The retainer 130 is attached to the front end portion of the connector housing 110 to cover the front end portion thereof. That is, the upper half (the left half of FIG. 1) of the terminal accommodation chamber 111 is covered by the retainer 130. A penetration hole 131 is formed in the retainer 130, and the penetration hole 131 corresponds to the terminal accommodation chamber 111 of the connector housing 110. Further, a bending regulation piece 133 is provided in the retainer 130. The bending regulation piece 133 is inserted between the locking lance 115 and the sidewall 113 of the terminal accommodation chamber 111 to regulate the bending of the locking lance 115 in the lock releasing direction. Furthermore, a tool insertion hole 135 is formed in the retainer 130. The tool insertion hole 135 is formed so as to be parallel to each penetration hole 131. When a release tool (not shown) is inserted from the tool insertion hole 135 into the terminal accommodation chamber 111, the locking lance 115 is bent to release the locking with respect to the terminal 200, thereby allowing the terminal 200 to be extracted.
In the connector which locks the terminal as described above, there are two structures that are disclosed as the locking lance. In a first structure, a locking surface of a locking protrusion 117 in one of the pair of locking lances is inclined. In the first structure, when extracting a terminal from a terminal accommodation chamber, a release tool (not shown) is inserted into the terminal accommodation chamber, and bends only the other locking lance so as to release the locking. In this state, when the terminal is pulled in a release direction, the terminal comes into contact with the inclined surface of the one locking lance, and the one locking lance 115 starts to be bent. Finally, the locking to the terminal is released.
In a second structure, any locking protrusions of a pair of locking lances do not have an inclined surface. In this structure, since the locking lances are locked to the terminal 200 with the same locking force from both sides thereof, the strong locking can be performed. When extracting the terminal from a terminal accommodation chamber, two release tools are inserted from a retainer (cf. FIG. 2) into the terminal accommodation chamber, and the two inserted release tools respectively bend locking lances 115 so as to release the locking.